Susan
is a special education administrator in a large public school system.
Susan has become hard of hearing (a moderate hearing loss) in both
ears and wears behind-the-ear hearing aids (BTEs). Because her hearing
loss has been so gradual, her speech and speech reading skills are
good. Most of the time, Susan does not use an interpreter because
her facility at using her residual hearing abilities, observing
facial expressions, watching gestures, and attending to other environmental
cues. If there happens to be an interpreter in the meeting, she
will occasionally use this person to check to make sure she understood
what the speaker said. If no interpreter is present, she asks questions
to clarify anything she did not understand. Susan indicates that,
in general, she has little difficulty with face-to-face conversations.
Susan's problems are evident when communication is not face-to-face
(i.e., when she cannot see the person speaking to her). Office mates
report that they will frequently forget and call to Susan when they
want to show her something. When the person realizes that Susan
has not heard them, they go to her office. When Susan is in noisy
environments, she reports that it is difficult to understand people
because her residual hearing cannot filter out the voice from the
background. Susan often jokes that she feels like she is on a merry-go-round
because she has to turn so often to visually locate the speaker.
Also, rooms with hard surfaces (no rugs. curtains, or sound deadening
ceilings are difficult for Susan. She hears the echo from voices
and environmental sounds. It is difficult for her to locate the
sound source. The phone in her office is particularly difficult.
Her hearing is bad enough that she cannot make out what a person
says. She often needs to have the person repeat the message or depend
on someone else to relay the message to her. This posed one particularly
difficult situation when dealing with confidential information about
one of her office staff members. The last area that causes Susan
difficulty is warning signals. All the warning signals (fire alarms,
computer errors, etc.) are auditory. Susan states that she cannot
hear them and, in one instance, was the only person in a building
that had been evacuated for a fire drill.
Task:
Read
the case study about Susan-then from your readings and explorations
from this week (and last) discuss the following:
What
access barriers does Susan face in performing her job with her current
abilities and methods?
- In
noisy environments, it is hard for Susan to discriminate between
background noise and the speaker.
- In
rooms with hard surfaces (no rugs. curtains, or sound deadening
ceilings, she hears the echo from voices and environmental sounds
and therefore it is difficult for her to locate the sound source.
- Since
all the warning signals (fire alarms, computer errors, etc.) are
auditory, her office is not a safe working environment for her.
How
could Susan's environment be modified to allow her to participate
in the meetings, conduct phone conversations, and recognize warning
signals?
- A
TTY or TDD (Telecommunications for the Deaf) machine can be attached
to Susan's phone to turn the auditory signal into a visual print-out.
Messanger or fax are other alternatives for Susan to communicate
with her colleagues.
- Susan
can use a hearing aid that amplifies sounds.
- Warning
signals in Susan's office can be made both auditory(sound) and
visual (flashing light).
What
specific types of AT devices may be beneficial to Susan? (you should
use information from the readings and other information you gather
from web searches).
-
TTY or TDD machine
- Amplification
Devices (Amplified Headsets, Modular Amplifiers, Portable Amplifiers)
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